Letter to Commissioner Shah

Congratulations on your appointment as Commissioner of New York State’s Department of Health. We wish you much success in this important position.

Physicians, researchers and other representatives of the undersigned organizations would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you on an issue we believe is the most pressing health issue confronting our State. This is the near-term prospect of massive unconventional gas drilling in upstate New York and its potential for significant adverse impacts on the health of citizens throughout the State. We would like to discuss this issue and the pivotal role that the DOH must play in the consideration and study of the health impacts of unconventional gas drilling.

The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation is in the process of revising its draft “Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement” (the “dSGEIS”) regarding the new technology of “high water volume horizontal fracturing” (“hydraulic fracturing”). The potential health impacts associated with the life-cycle of hydraulic fracturing were almost completely overlooked in the dSGEIS despite numerous reports of health-related concerns in other parts of the country where hydraulic fracturing is on-going (1). Over 13,000 comments were submitted to the DEC regarding the dSGEIS. Concerns about the health impacts of hydraulic fracturing were a recurrent theme as was the fact that no cumulative impact study has been undertaken. Our regional office of the EPA, for example, concluded that “potential impacts to human health and the environment…warrant further scientific and regulatory analysis,” expressing particular concern about local and regional air quality, water quality and radioactive materials disturbed during drilling (2).

It is estimated that tens of thousands of wells would be drilled in New York State (as well as in neighboring Pennsylvania). It is important to note that drilling proponents claim that gas extraction activities are afforded a unique exemption under State law from local zoning laws so as to be situated anywhere; as such, this industrial activity can be sited not just in industrial areas but also in residentially and agriculturally zoned areas, in our State’s watersheds and food sheds– literally in backyards and schoolyards.

Each well and each fracturing cycle requires 3-9 million gallons of fresh water mixed with thousands of pounds of chemicals (10,000 gallons of chemicals per million gallons of water), many of them known neurotoxins, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. Estimates are that 50-95% of the fracking fluids are permanently left underground where, over time, they may migrate to contaminate ground water and aquifers (3). Fluids that are returned to the surface are contaminated with the fracturing chemicals and the “brines” from the gas bearing layers that may contain, among other things, naturally occurring radioactive substances and heavy metals (4). Dr. Theo Colborn, a renowned environmental health analyst, has listed many of the chemicals on the website of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange and provides evidence of the possible health effects of some of the chemicals that drillers/frackers have disclosed they are using (5). And just last month, investigators from a House Energy Committee announced that diesel fuel, containing benzene, toluene and other BTEX compounds, were extensively used in hydraulic fracturing operations in 19 states despite an industry pledge not to do so. The US Department of Health and Human Services and private research have recognized that the BTEX compounds can lead to brain, respiratory, and kidney damage (6).

Moreover, the processing of gas at the drill site and at compressor stations generates significant air pollution. Volatile organic compounds, BTEX, NOx, PAHs and H2S, and other HAPs are routinely released into the atmosphere. Al Armendariz, now EPA’s Region 6 Regional Administrator, documented the amounts of air polluting fugitive gases
from the hydraulic fracturing in the Barnett Shale near the Dallas/Fort Worth Area. (7). The health impacts of these emissions are potentially enormous and, of course, affect populations both near the extraction activity as well as “downwind” (1) (8).

Risks to human health are therefore present at every step of the gas extraction process. These include possible contamination of drinking water sources through surface spills, well casing failures, blowouts, and other events, migration of drilling and fracking fluids, during drilling or fracking or over time to ground water sources and aquifers through naturally occurring fissures, well blow-outs and well casing failures (9), noise and VAD (Vibro-Acoustic Disease) (10), radioactive contamination (11) and air contamination by emissions from venting, pipeline leaks, compressor stations and the intense truck traffic required over each well’s life-cycle (12).

Despite these known hazards, the oil and gas industry is exempt from important provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other federal environmental laws. The absence of federal regulatory oversight has left it up to individual states to regulate this industry and adequately enforce those regulations.

In the opinion of many, shale gas extraction employing the current technology has the potential to compromise the
quality of our water and air for decades to come. It also has the potential to significantly and negatively impact the health of our citizens, especially those with respiratory ailments, the elderly, infants and children, pregnant women and their unborn children. Expressing concern, the Medical Society of the State of New York recently adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on natural gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing until valid information is available to evaluate the process for its potential effects on human health and the environment (13). The NYS Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics supported a moratorium on gas drilling pending further studies (14). Dr. ChathamStephens of The Mt Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center recently testified before the NYC Council expressing serious concerns that children’s health will be adversely impacted by gas drilling (15). And just this week, the Board of Trustees of Basset Medical Center issued a statement calling hydrofracking “a public health issue of the highest priority” and urging the DOH to work with the DEC to fulfill DOH”s “historic responsibility” to protect public health (16).

New Yorkers are fortunate that our leaders have pressed the “pause” button on the commencement of hydraulic fracturing activities. Governor Paterson ordered a SGEIS prior to the permitting of hydraulic fracturing and, before leaving office, issued Executive Order 41 ordering the DEC to revise the draft SGEIS and hold a second public comment period. Governor Cuomo signed a continuation of this important order. Yet, to our knowledge, the DOH has not been an involved agency of any significance on this matter.

We are now at a crossroads –to include a rigorous discussion and investigation of the public health issues as they will be affected by unconventional natural gas extraction or face the potential consequences for years and decades to come. We believe that DOH must be an essential player in this process. Only the DOH has the expertise–and mandate–to assure that public health is not endangered by the commencement of hydraulic fracturing in New York. The DOH was also delegated primary enforcement responsibility for the Safe Drinking Water Act by EPA. We therefore urge the DOH to secure co-lead status with the DEC on the dSGEIS, as the EPA recommended, and to consider other steps that can be taken to evaluate the risks to public health prior to the State permitting hydraulic fracturing.

Footnoted are several papers that we believe will be of interest. Representatives of the health community would like to schedule a meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss this matter further. Please contact Dr. Larysa Dyrszka if you have any further questions at this time as well as to schedule the aforementioned meeting.